Song of the Month

It’s classic to ask someone a superlative question - “What’s your favourite X of all time?” “What’s your proudest moment?” I’ve never been great at answering these kinds of questions, but I’ll excitedly tell you about a movie I like or a proud moment I’ve had, so that’s the kind of question I try to ask others. In that vein, I couldn’t tell you my favourite song/album of all time, but what’s on rotation right now? I saw Dan Mangan live earlier this year playing his album Natural Light, and that’s stayed in my collection ever since. It’s a great, chill album by a great, chill dude.

This week’s puzzle is not about Dan Mangan, but I think you’ll enjoy it anyway.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Song of the Month by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

This is the second week in a row I’ve delivered to you a 12×11 crossword instead of the default 11×11. That’s 11 extra squares of puzzle-y goodness. How does one decide what size a puzzle should be, you ask? The theme usually dictates that. Longer theme answers may require a different shape/size, which was the case today. Like many aspects of construction, it comes down to a vague, unsatisfying answer of “whatever makes the puzzle more fun.”

Weird Al! I know this song better than the original Backstreet Boys, tbh.

Today’s Theme

Today’s title “Song of the Month” is a bit of wordplay - today’s theme is a song about a month. We see three blocks of shaded squares, and our revealer, 28-Across:

[An ode to the 21st of a certain month, by the band in the shaded squares!]

This ode is the song SEPTEMBER, whose opening lyric asks “Do you remember the 21st night of September?”

The band is found in those shaded squares - EARTH, WIND, and FIRE hidden within longer words and phrases.

Behind the Clues

8A. Though I’ve never been into them, [Like some model planes and cars, briefly] is RC, as in radio/remote controlled. Cars I could see myself getting into - RC planes feel too high-stakes. I do know a model plane guy though, so maybe one day I’ll have the chance to put that to the test.

26A. I had the pleasure of seeing Weird Al live when he came to Edmonton, and as such got to see him belt the [Weird Al song about buying a "slightly damaged golf bag" and "Smurf TV tray" online] EBAY live. Nice seller, great delivery, 5 stars.

42A. [Salad sauce] tickles something in me. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just that collectively we seem to have made an arbitrary distinction between a sauce and DRESSING, but what I truly hope is that someone with food knowledge emails me back and lets me know that sauce and dressing have distinct culinary differences and that I should stay in my lane, crossword man.

3D. [Natural carbon capture solution, in a way] is TREE, in how they use the carbon dioxide in the air for photosynthesis (thanks, elementary school science!). I started reading (listening to) Braiding Sweetgrass recently, so this probably is not the last nature-inspired clue you’ll see in the next few weeks.

8D. “Eww GORP, sounds gross,” you say? Well, there are only two things in GORP, so [Thing in a handful of GORP] is a pretty narrow field if you know GORP stands for Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts. Funnily enough, both are the same length, so both fit in the slot. But by solving crosses, you’ll know in this case it’s RAISIN.

20,21,22D. This trio is what I named the “colour block” (pun intended) during construction. [Co. who made the chess computer "Deep Blue"] (IBM), [Catch red-handed] (NAB), and [What turmeric or red cabbage leaves can be used as] (DYE) all refer to colours (or in the last case, things that make colours). It’s always fun finding little patterns like this - it can make for nice little moments, and it’s a great tool for coming up with future crossword ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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